Ana Mendieta

This photograph documents Ana Mendieta’s “earth-body work” Furrows, in which she formed the contours of a female figure from dirt and sod. She created this work on a stretch of lawn beside the museum’s Benefit Street entrance during a week-long artist residency in April 1984. This image, from a series of five, are the only thing left of Furrows, as it was the artist’s intention to let the work naturally merge back into the ground. Mendieta’s fascination with the relationship of early cultures to nature and her own memories of immigrating to the United States as a child led her to create work using her body and natural materials “to become whole again.” [see also: 1998.4.5]